Market-led densification of suburbia: Types of developers and their resource management for strategic decision making

Suburban areas have significant potential for densification to address housing shortages, yet municipal planning departments often exhibit inertia in fully exploiting this potential. Consequently, private developers have increasingly driven suburban densification initiatives, becoming key actors. Despite their growing influence, the strategic behaviour of developers remains poorly understood. This study investigates the types of developers involved in suburban densification and their strategic decisions through a case study of Dortmund, Germany. Document analysis and semi-structured interviews reveal four key developer types: Entrepreneurial Builders, Land Developer-Investors, Property-Improvers and Owner-Occupier Developers. The different strategies of each developer type are dictated by the specific resource configuration, demonstrating a fundamental dichotomy: Entrepreneurial Builders and Land Developer-Investors depend heavily on market-dependent resources while in contrast, Property-Improvers and Owner-Occupier Developers leverage relationship-dependent resources like political networks. The findings indicate that developers’ resource dependencies fundamentally dictate densification outcomes, concluding that development emerges as a market-driven process shaped by developers’ strategic actions. This paper clarifies developer heterogeneity in suburban densification by empirically linking an established developer typology with specific resource management configurations.